So I have been reading on here and I have been seeing some posts about how food consumption is a bit high and making things takes too long, uses too much food, etc... Here is my take on it that I hope will help players as well as give the Devs an idea or two about some changes that can be made.

Coming from the oil and gas industry here in the states, it is backbreaking work. There are days that we are running a shovel all day long, and then there are days where we are turning wrenches all day and lifting heavy things. During these activities, we are consuming water more than we are food. Sure we eat at mid day and might get a small snack in between, but it is always so hot and the job so demanding that its water that is important and what we crave, not food.

Also, for those that are frustrated with long craft times, I look at it like this. When I first began my job in the oil and gas industry, I didnt even know how to use a shovel or turn a wrench. This required more effort and more time for me to complete the tasks that I can do easily now, and my tools were damaged far faster. Also, in the beginning, my energy levels were getting sapped severely, but now that I am experienced, I can do 100 times the production with the same energy and food/water intake, my tools last almost forever, and it takes me far less time to complete tasks.

With all that said, it seems to me that the Devs are on the right track, but maybe we can get a few tweeks. So here are my ideas...

Water intake- Instead of always having to eat eat eat, incorporate a dehydration system. This would give water more of a role than just crops, and possibly make food a 3 times a day thing, however with the option we can eat snacks if we choose for an added energy boost, stat gain, etc. This would also open up additional crafting options like water bags, canteens, etc.

Food-As stated above, a 3 meal a day or similar system would be more realistic than eating 20-30 steaks a day. If we do not eat well, maybe we suffer temporary stat loss for the cycle, which would simulate someone that is sick, or has a bad diet in real life. Not sure if it is possible, but maybe also incorporate a change in our appearance depending on our diet and its positive/negative affects such as weight gain/loss.

Tools- This is probably the biggest frustration for me because I like things to be as realistic as possible. For example lets look at mining. In real life, there is no way that I am going to mine iron ore with a stone pickaxe. All I would accomplish is my tool getting broken. In addition, even if I was using my stone pickaxe on a stone deposit, it would degrade really fast. The exception would be using it on limestone because it is soft. Now if I were to use bronze, my tool wouldn't degrade as fast, but I still wouldn't be able to mine iron very well, so I would still have high degrade and low if any production mining iron. Add skill level to it all and degrade would either be faster or slower like it is now in game. So I think it would be better to make tools more realistic. Basically "The right tool for the right job". A couple other suggestions:

1-Make all ore deposits similar to stone where we can find "loose" pieces on the ground as well as mining caches. Either make the option to gather loose pieces from deposits like we can with trees, or add actual loose pieces aka "pile of iron/tin/limestone ore", etc.

2- Add mines/mining options for ore and clay as well as "Large" deposits. These can all be very rare of course to keep the balance, and should degrade or have a limit as to what can be mined. Can also be adjusted by skill level.

3- Adjust the success rate for manual iron mining (as long as proper tools are used). As it stands now, with some of the best tools and mining skills, the success chance to obtain any is way too low. This makes blacksmithing a grind that is unbearable to most. In my case, I have logged well over 100-200 hours and I have only obtained 11 pieces of iron ore. Add to this the high failure rate to process it, and I am looking at years of play time before I have enough to process and make a single iron item.

With the above, I am not saying make iron or any ore a common find around every corner, but just give a few more options on obtaining it.